Mapeamentos icônicos na estrutura interna dos verbos em Língua Brasileira de Sinais

Abstract

This research aims at contribution to the studies or Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), by investigating the iconic mappings within the internal structure of the verbs of the language. We understand iconicity as an analogic relation between form and meaning, in which there is resemblance or similarity (MEIR; TKACHMAN, 2018). This relation is found in both spoken and signed languages. Other than iconicity, we also investigate the morphophonological structure of the verbs in Libras. Assuming the proposals by Lourenço (2018a, 2018b) and Lourenço and Wilbur (2018), in which they assume that there are simultaneous pieces of visual information, regarding five different morphophonological structures of the verb, to wit: nonmanual markers, including both superior face and inferior face, and the three primary parameters, that are handshape, movement and location. Building on these two concepts – iconicity and internal morphophonological structure of the verb – we investigate whether is possible to identify iconic mappings in which layer, or slots, of visual information of the verb structure and what are the effects of the presence of iconicity to other morphological processes. More specifically, we analyze body-anchored verbs that are localized on the head or on the torso, according to the list of verbs found in Lourenço (2018a). In this sense, this investigation sets an interface between mophophonology and semantics of the verbs in Libras. Building on the presence of iconic mappings in the internal structure of the verb, we propose a scale of iconicity for the verbs in Libras, which was later tested with deaf and hearing signers.